The present invention relates to a new and distinct perennial variety of Vaccinium corymbosum hybrid (blueberry), which has been given the variety denomination of ‘C04-051’. The new variety ‘C04-051’ shows distinctive traits such as strong growth vigor, good acidity and sweetness balance in the fruit, low scarring strong fruit firmness, low chilling requirement. The new variety ‘C04-051’ is intended for use as fresh fruit for shipping, customer pick and processing markets and as a home garden plant.
The new blueberry cultivar is a selection resulting from seedlings produced in a controlled breeding programme of Vaccinium varieties in Florida, USA in 2002 from a cross of the blueberry variety known as ‘FL02-043’ (seed parent) (unpatented) and the blueberry variety known as ‘FL89-119’ (pollen parent) (unpatented). The seed from the cross was sown and grown in Corindi Beach, New South Wales, Australia. The new cultivar was discovered and selected in 2004 as a single plant within a population of seedlings resulted from the controlled cross, in an experimental block in the field at Corindi Beach, New South Wales, Australia, and has since been named ‘C04-051’. Selection criteria were a combination of strong growth vigor, low chilling requirement, good fruit flavor and low scarring on the fruit. The new variety was subsequently evaluated for a number of years at the commercial farm at Corindi Beach, New South Wales, Australia.
Asexual reproduction of the new variety ‘C04-051’ by softwood cutting propagation since 2004 at Corindi Beach, New South Wales, Australia has demonstrated that the new variety reproduces true to type with all of the characteristics, as herein described, firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of such asexual propagation, with the clones phenotypically identical to the original plant.
The seed parent ‘FL02-043’ is characterized by an upright growth habit and late timing ripening of fruit. The pollen parent ‘FL89-119’ is characterized by medium plant growth vigor, early timing of ripening of fruit and semi-upright growth habit. The new variety ‘C04-051’ differs from the female parent ‘FL02-043’ and the male parent ‘FL89-119’ in that ‘C04-051’ has a mid-season cropping timing. The new variety ‘C04-051’ has a plant growth habit that is intermediate between the female parent's upright and the male parent's semi-upright growth habit. The new variety ‘C04-051’ also differs from the male parent in that ‘C04-051’ has stronger plant vigor.